1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a cooking apparatus that heats and thereby cooks food.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some cooking apparatuses adopt an induction heating device as a heat source to heat food. The induction heating device heats food using heat generated by eddy current loss and hysteresis loss caused in a cooking container disposed within an alternating magnetic field.
The cooking apparatus adopting the induction heating device includes a cooking plate, and at least one working coil disposed under the cooking plate to inductively heat the cooking container.
Such an induction-type cooking apparatus is very safe because it maintains a relatively low temperature of the cooking plate during cooking and generates almost no toxic gas. Furthermore, the induction-type cooking apparatus achieves high energy efficiency compared to other cooking apparatuses that directly heat coils or employ a gas burner.
Generally, however, the cooking apparatus employing the induction heating device is restricted in use according to the size and position of the working coil. For instance, if a user does not put a cooking container correctly on a cooking area defined by the size and position of the working coil, power consumption is unnecessarily increased, which also increases a stress applied to a power module driving the induction heating device, thereby causing a failure of the cooking apparatus.